Mercer Accuses Law Firm of Pension Wrongdoing

August 18, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The long-running
legal battle over a controversial Milwaukee County benefits
program that eventually sparked a scandal and a personnel
reshuffling has taken a new turn.

Federal court filings in Milwaukee County’s suit
against Mercer now show the consultant has pointed an
accusing finger against a Milwaukee law firm, which it
accuses of helping to develop the “backdrop” benefits perk
in the first place, theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The Mercer legal documents charged that lawyers
from the Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren firm helped former
county Human Resources Director Gary Dobbert design the
“backdrop,” and not Mercer as the county claims.

The “backdrop” allowed some county retirees to
collect six-figure lump sums as well as monthly pension
checks. The backdrop and other generous benefits spawned
the scandal that led to the forced resignation of
then-County Executive F. Thomas Ament and the ouster of
seven county supervisors and several top Ament aides.
Dobbert was convicted of misconduct for lying about the
backdrop cost

According to the newspaper, Mercer now argues that
it had only "casual conversations" with Dobbert about the
backdrop before its late-2000 enactment. It was the
Reinhart firm and one of its lawyers, Steve Huff, who
partnered with Dobbert to draw up the backdrop, according
to Mercer.

Once Dobbert got permission from Ament in September
2000 to include a backdrop benefit in labor negotiations
that fall, he again sought Reinhart's advice on the
benefit design, the brief says.

The newspaper said Huff asserted on Friday that
Mercer's claims were "totally false, totally malicious."
Reinhart had "absolutely nothing to do with" the design
or estimating the cost of the backdrop benefit, Huff
said.

Mercer says it shouldn't be held liable for any
costs because county officials didn't rely on Mercer
advice in voting for the benefit.